Celebrating Pride Month with Katy Burton, Kappa Iota-Wright State (Ohio)

June is Pride Month and we are supporting and celebrating our members that identify as LGBTQ+. We’ve asked a few chapter Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, chairs to tell us what they do in their chapters to educate on LGBTQ+ matters.

“Being LGBTQ+ has taught me a lot. I grew up in an area where gay wasn’t okay, but Delta Zeta has given me a home. My sisters are always ready to learn and grow in the world they live in. As my chapter’s diversity, equity, and inclusion chair, I educate my sisters on sexualities they may not know of yet. I also teach my sisters about the strong history that the LGBTQ+ community has—for example, Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha P. Johnson was one of the most important figures of the gay rights movement. In the 1960s, being gay was a serious crime. Marsha P. Johnson was a participant in Stonewall, one of the kick-starters of the gay rights movement. Stonewall was a protest held for five days. In New York, it was illegal to dance with a person of the same sex, but people found ways to get around that at secret gay nightclubs and bars. At Stonewall, a secret club was swept by NYPD. The people at the club were arrested and the ones who made it out protested for the rights or LGBTQ+ people. To find more about this story go to https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots. Happy Pride Month from Delta Zeta Kappa Iota!” – Katy Burton, Kappa Iota-Wright State (Ohio)